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| F-35 fires its cannon Image: Reddit |
Why modern warplanes still have guns?
The answer is pilots want the gun, can be read from a Business insider(1), where is the link below this text, but the other answer is that the gun gives more firepower to the jet fighter. There is always a limited number of missiles and bombs, and the gun allows jet-fighter to attack against multiple ground and aerial targets. The things that I write here are fitting with as well as manned and unmanned aircraft.
One of the things about the gun is that it's immune against stealth. The visual contact to target is enough, and even without radar or infrared image, the pilot can attack against the target if he sees it.
The gun has a strong position in the fighter aircraft because new artificial intelligence base firing solutions makes them still very effective, and those solutions base the semi- or fully automatic firing mode. When the pilot sees the target and decide to open fire, the system calculates the impact point of the cartridge and target, and it would not shoot before the hit is sure.
The level of automatization can be higher than this, and when the pilot pushes the "fire" button the computer chooses a weapon, and that thing makes the artificial intelligence an excellent tool in the manned aircraft. The image recognition system decreases the effect of traditional stealth aircraft, and the automatic system allows to fire the ground and aerial targets at the same time.
Image: https://www.reddit.com/r/aviation/comments/97sg2q/f35_firing_its_internal_cannon_for_the_first_time/
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| Lockheed U-2 |
Lasers and microwave systems might already in use also in aircraft. "Lockheed aims for laser on fighter by 2025" (2) (https://breakingdefense.com/2020/09/lockheed-aims-for-laser-on-fighter-by-2025/)
The next-generation weapon is the laser gun. The laser is easy to mount in the place of the gun, and that weapon could make aircraft more deadly than ever before. The ram air would help to keep the temperature of the laser low, and that thing means that the laser weapons might already in use. Another thing what we should concern is the other DEW (Directed Energy Weapons).
Lockheed U-2(3) type high-altitude aircraft could be excellent platforms for laser and microwave weapons. The high-flying aircraft can aim its lasers and other weapons to lower flying aircraft and missiles, and that would make it the "big ammo" over the battlefield. The microwaves can terminate incoming missiles when the aircraft detects them so the old aircraft is not easy to destroy if they carry this kind of weapon.
One of the easiest ways to install the directed energy weapons to aircraft is to transform the radar use plus and minus electricity at the same time. If radar would send the two polar radiowaves or microwaves to the target, that thing would even melt the body of the targeted aircraft, or at least it will increase the temperature of the body, which makes it softer.
The high-flying aircraft like old fashion U-2, MiG-25 (4), or MiG-31 (5) can equip with microwave systems. The beam of the microwaves is targeted to the ground and they could drop drone swarms and other aircraft. Those microwaves can also protect aircraft against missile fire. And this is the thing in the modern military aircraft. If some nation sells it's the best aircraft, we must ask does it sell those systems to other countries? Do other countries get it's computer programs and weapons, what is reserved for their pilots?
Source:
(2) https://breakingdefense.com/2020/09/lockheed-aims-for-laser-on-fighter-by-2025/
(3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_U-2
(4) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-25
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